Drive-Thru Gourmet: Arby's lays it on thick with new bacon dreamwich

This week I reached out for a Triple Thick Brown Sugar Bacon BLT, new for a limited time only, at Arby's, with 3,300 restaurants across, up, and down the U.S. Sometimes all you have to do is read the menu to know, "I gotta try that."

Triple — thick — brown sugar — bacon. Stop me when you hear something you're not craving. Usually I say, if it takes six words to name it, don't order it. But these are unusual times.

Here's the Triple Thick Brown Sugar Bacon BLT breakdown:

Four extra-heavy pieces of bacon, leaf lettuce, tomatoes, and mayonnaise on a sweet brioche bun.

Those numbers are a little high across the board, especially the calories and fat grams. But you know my feelings about mayonnaise ... just say no.

Hold the mayo and this bacon dreamwich drops to 690 calories and 45 fat grams.

What's shakin' bacon?

The bacon really is thicker than you'd expect from a chain emporium. Each slice is about 1/4-inch thick, so add 'em up, and you're getting about a one-inch slab of bacon. We're talking pork belly here.

The bacon is hand-sprinkled with brown sugar and baked — the best way to cook bacon — in each Arby's restaurant. Baking keeps bacon true to form, renders the fat, and really pops the brown sugar, producing super sweet and flavorful hunks of meaty bacon.

The buttery sweet brioche bun puts this sugar rush over the top. The only thing missing is offering hot fudge sauce as a condiment. Hey Arby's, if that's next, I want credit.

If you're one of those (everybody) who never gets enough B in their BLT, this might be the pot of bacon at the end of your rainbow.

The BLT with something extra is one of four new Triple Thick Brown Sugar Bacon sandwiches at Arby's. The others are: Roast Beef, Turkey, and the "Half Pound Club."